Mission Tandarust Punjab: Anti-adulteration drive starts full steam

June 12, 2018 10:16 PM

Chandigarh, June 12, 2018: Deterrent action under Mission Tandarust Punjab is in full swing state-wide. As per the plan chalked out by the mission Tandarust Punjab team, the Anti-Adulteration Drive has started full steam.

After a couple of random surprise checks which were meant more or less to send a message that strict action will be taken against adulterators, a series of raids under Food Safety Standard Act 2006 were conducted in the Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Moga and Sangrur.

Special teams formed under the chairmanship of respective Deputy Commissioners and included the representatives of Food Safety, Drug Administration, Mandi Board, Agriculture and Police Department.

During the raids the teams ransacked huge amounts of adulterated food articles. In a major crackdown on sale of artificially ripened fruits tons of unethically ripened banana and mangoes were found. The inspection of the ripening chambers revealed exorbitant use of Calcium Carbide which is highly carcinogenic and its persistent usage causes cancer. It is indeed alarming in view of the fact that on an average nearly 6.7 lac quintal mangoes and 18 lac quintals of bananas are consumed annually in the State.

In the raid at Sachdeva Milk Products, Nabha Road, Bhawanigarh 300 kg of vanaspati, a bag of skimmed milk powder, 450 litres of milk , 100kg of paneer were seized. In Moga 48 quintal rotten onion, 2.5 quintal banana were destroyed. Similarly, from raid at Dhuri 1000 litres of adulterated milk was seized and the samples have been sent for analysis at Food Lab, Kharar. In yet another raid in Sangrur about 600 litres of cold drinks which were manufactured under unhygienic conditions, by addition of saccharin and expired essences was destroyed. In a similar raid in the district, 1000 litres of synthetic milk was found.

Similarly joint inspections were conducted a day before to weed out the Spurious / sub Standard medicines in five Municipal Cities of the State namely Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda. During this drive, total 69 inspections were made and drugs were seized from 4 chemists due to non production of relevant purchase / sale records of the seized drugs. 01 chemist shop at Bathinda was sealed as the Incharge / Prop. of said shop absconded from the shop and 01 chemist shop at Amritsar was also sealed as Proprietor of chemist shop was wilfully absent during inspection. Total, 39 drugs samples were taken for test and analysis. Teams succeeded in recovery of 670 Tablets of drugs containing Tramadol Hcl. The team of Patiala succeeded in recovery of 552 vials of banned & expired drug i.e. Diviron Injection 30ml.

Expressing satisfaction at the action taken under Tandrust Punjab Mission, the Mission Director Mr. Kahan Singh Pannu (IAS) said that the momentum of the Mission will not subdue rather will continue with greater vigour.